Diet
A diet is one that helps maintain or improve health is called Healthy Diet. It is important to prevent many chronic conditions such as: obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. A healthy diet involves consuming appropriate amounts of all nutrients, and an adequate amount of water. Nutrients can be obtained from many different foods, so there are a wide variety of diets that may be considered healthy diets. A healthy diet needs to have a balance of macro nutrients / energy ( fats, proteins, and carbohydrates ) and micro nutrients to meet the needs for human nutrition without inducing toxicity from excessive amounts.
WHO makes the following recommendations to achieve a healthy weight.
• Limit energy intake from total fats and shift fat consumption away from saturated fats to unsaturated fats and towards the elimination of trans-fatty acids
• Increase consumption of fruits and vegetables, legumes ,whole grains and nuts
• Limit the intake of simple sugar
• Limit salt / sodium consumption from all sources and ensure that salt is iodized
• Sufficient essential amino acids (“complete protein”) to provide cellular replenishment and transport proteins. All essential amino acids are present in animals. A select few plants (such as soy and hemp) give all the essential acids. A combination of other plants may also provide all essential amino acids. Fruits such as avocado and pumpkin seeds also have all the essential amino acids.
• Essential micro nutrients such as vitamins and certain minerals.
• Avoiding directly poisonous (e.g. heavy metals) and carcinogenic (e.g. benzene substances)
• Avoiding foods contaminated by human pathogens (e.g. E. coli, tapeworm eggs).